Maxims of a queen, Christina of Sweden (1626-89)

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MAXIMS OF A QUEEN

ONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
EEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMVII

London: Printed by Wm. Clowes and Softs, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

HESE maxims were pub-
lished many years after
the Queen of Sweden's
death, and when they ap-
peared men said that they rivalled
the sayings of La Rochefoucauld.
Though a comparison sometimes
serves to point a likeness, in this
case it but emphasised a difference,
for the cynical wit and contempt for
men displayed in the sayings of the
French courtier have no parallel in
the sober wisdom of the thoughts
garnered by the Swedish Queen.

In the occasional leisure snatched

between Council and Court, or

instruction and reading, Christina

jotted down in aphoristic form the

5

INTRODUCTION

outcome of her daily experience,
and thus desultorily composed a
great number of maxims. Though
the physician, Bourdelot, and a few
others amongst her friends possessed
either more or less complete collec-
tions of these sayings, it is improb-
able that they were ever intended
for publication, or made except to
beguile those moments of idleness
which occur even in the fullest lives.
A manuscript copy of the work was
found in the Queen's large and
straggling handwriting in the Riario
Palace in Rome after her death,
with the date 1680 inscribed upon
it. Since those of her personal
letters and records to which we have
access survive to us through an
accident — the death, midway in his
task, of the sole executor charged
with the destruction of her papers
— it is probable that the maxims
6

INTRODUCTION

would have been burnt along with
the rest had Azzolino's life been
spared, which would have been
lamentable, for though some of the
actual sentences exist in the copies
already alluded to, it can never be
without interest to have authentic
editions of the reflections of great
persons on the world about them, if
these reflections bear the stamp of
an intimate experience.

While on the throne of Sweden
Christina, because of her erudition,
was called Pallas Nordica, and if
we heeded all the flattery as well as
the genuine praise of which she was
the recipient we should be amazed
that she remained modest or simple
about herself. The learning so
much belauded by contemporaries
was certainly an achievement. She
could speak and read with facility
in Greek and Latin, and expressed
7

INTRODUCTION

herself in five modern tongues with
fluency. She studied Hebrew as
well as philosophy, political science,
and mathematics; but, in spite of
these labours, she found time to be
a good shot and a fine horsewoman,
and to join in all the winter sports
of the North. Descartes, who gave
her lessons in philosophy, said she
was made more in the image of God
than most men. Cromwell admired
her conduct of affairs ; Milton and
Marvell wrote, the one in prose and
the other in verse, to celebrate her
greatness, knowledge and power.
Scholars from all Western lands,
and envoys from such far places as
Ethiopia and Tartary, came to pay
homage to the Queen over whom
imagination and panegyric had cast
such a wonderful glamour. For
nearly fifty years of the seventeenth
century she was a cynosure for the
8

INTRODUCTION

eyes of the European world, inter-
esting men no less as a private
person than as a ruler. Having
ascended the throne at the age of six,
she twenty-three years later resigned
its responsibility, and on joining the
Catholic Church chose Rome as
her abode. Except during the four
long journeys which she undertook
in order to straighten her financial
affairs and transact political business,
she lived in that city for the remaining
thirty-five years of her life.

It has been supposed that Chris-
tina abandoned her kingdom in
order to enter the Catholic Church,
but it appears that, though her
hatred for Lutheranism had begun
as a child, she had contemplated
abdication and desired retirement
at least two years before she decided
to adopt another faith. To an
individualist the great object in life
9 c

INTRODUCTION

is self-development, and for this
woman abdication and conversion
were but acts of ascension into
true unfettered life. She cannot be
said to have abdicated in order to
become a Roman Catholic, any
more than she can be said to have
become a Roman Catholic in order
to abdicate. The two acts were
the outcome of the same ambition,
and though one was not the result
of the other, they may be said to
be complementary. All the gilded
chains with which a people binds
its King, and all the rigours of
Protestant worship were to her
offensive and odious and left her
with the one wish to escape into
an enlarged and more liberal life.
In executing the considerable duties
of her station, which she felt that
any man could undertake as well
or better than herself, she had little
10

INTRODUCTION

or no time for that self-cultivation
and acquirement of new learning
which was to her the end of life.
Formalities of any kind were irksome
to her, for she was characterised by
a passion for essentials and by a
love of simplicity in . all things.
Utterly without personal vanity and
without fear she could not be dis-
suaded from her decision to embrace
private life by the thought of loss
of prestige or dread of poverty.
Conversing one day with Sir Bul-
strode Whitelocke, Ambassador from
the English Commonwealth, on the
matter of abdication, she said, in reply
to his observation that Cromwell had
once contemplated retirement but
that immediately an additional
honour had been forced upon him,
1 All that I desire is to be less than
I am by a private retirement.'
Like Elizabeth of England, she
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INTRODUCTION

had no inclination for marriage,
indeed, her spirit was too free and
independent to submit to what in
her case would assuredly have proved
an unequal and constraining yoke.
Though petitioned again and again
by senate and people to form some
political alliance that might benefit
her country and ensure the succes-
sion, she consistently refused to do
so. A medal, designed by her,
advertised to the world the detach-
ment of her attitude to life. It bore
the emblem of the Manucodiata, or
Bird of Paradise, of which it is said
that since it has no feet it must ever
hang hovering in the air. The
inscription, * Liber v i nacqiii e vissi
e morro sciolto^ which surrounded
the symbolic bird, announced Chris-
tina's determination of celibacy.

Established at Rome she founded
an academy of letters, which held its

12

INTRODUCTION

meetings in her palace, and Ranke
is of opinion that her austere classic
taste tended to curb the extrava-
gance and hyperbole which rendered
ridiculous the polite literature of that
day. Some of her great leisure was
occupied with the study of astronomy,
and instructed by Cassini of Bologna
she watched the glittering procession
of the stars through the dark hours
of many nights, and speculated on
their courses and their secrets.
Alchemy fascinated her, as it has
fascinated many seeking souls, and
numerous were the hermetic experi-
ments which, together with Cardinal
Azzolino, she conducted in her
laboratory. The Queen's collection
of books and manuscripts, which
contained inestimable treasures from
the celebrated Petau library, as well
as the rarest works from the stores
of such bibliophiles as Vossius,
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INTRODUCTION

Mazarin, and Grotius, had been
collected at enormous cost, and
was said to be the best in Europe.
Bronzes and pictures she avidly
secured whenever death or financial
embarrassment necessitated their
disposal, and the Riario Palace in
Rome became not only the pride
and delight of its owner but the
envy of all connoisseurs.

As curtain after curtain rings up
in the long drama of Christina's life,
we see with extraordinary clearness
and detail the scenes in which she
played. Her personality always fills
the stage, and whether it be as little
child giving audience to ambassadors
from Muscovy, as grown woman at
her abdication bidding farewell to
her people, as convert by the ceno-
taph of the great Maximilian, as
pilgrim kneeling in the dust before
the venerated shrine of Loretto, as
14

INTRODUCTION

amazon prancing into Rome on a
caparisoned white * horse, as Justice
condemning Monaldeschi, or as
Pallas Nordica presiding over the
Italian academy, every part she
played is instinct with dramatic
interest and vivid with life.

Few educated people live with
spontaneity, for learning and the
many conventions of civilised society
usually crush originality and make
man more subservient to circum-
stance than to the dictates of his
own soul and conscience. Christina,
unafraid of sharp individualisation,
lived fearlessly from the well-spring
of her own nature, heeding but little
the opinion of others and seeking
to realise in all things ' the intention
of her Maker.' Because she had ' la
grande curiosite ' she never grew old,
but retained her eager interest in
politics, religion, letters, and science,
15

INTRODUCTION

and.her passion for new acquirement,
till she was summoned to enter the
life in which men hope that curiosity
is satisfied. The simplicity and forti-
tude which characterised her every
action did not desert her in dying.
She left directions that all her papers
should be burnt, that her funeral
should be quiet, and that her plain
tomb should bear no other inscrip-
tion than ' Vixit Christina annos
sexaginta tres? Those who have
seen the marble monument dedi-
cated to her memory in S. Peter's
will know that this, her last request,
was not complied with.

There was in her nature something
of the ascetic and the saint. She
could endure hardness with joy, and
she could face suffering and adversity
with equanimity. Turning instinc-
tively from the mediation of con-
fessors and directors, she sought in
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INTRODUCTION

her prayers and meditations to enter
1 that quiet and immense solitude in
which the soul is alone with God.'
In the confession with which her
autobiography is prefaced she says :
' Thou, God, hast given me a heart
which nothing will content : with
alarming ingratitude it counts as
nothing the graces Thou hast
showered on me. . . . Nothing can
satisfy me but Thee. Thou hast
made me so great that if Thou
gavest me the Empire of the whole
world it would not satisfy me. . . .
I ask Thee, for Thyself, by Thyself.
I pray Thee not to refuse the ardent
insatiable desire that Thou hast
wakened in my heart, and that I
recognise as the greatest of Thy
graces. Render me worthy to possess
Thee by a blind and perfect resig-
nation such as is due to Thee. . . .
Break my secret bonds, however
17 D

INTRODUCTION

noble or innocent they be. Help
me to abandon this my work to
Thee and Thee only, as well as my
life and my death for time and for
eternity.'

But a fragment of the autobio-
graphy remains to us, and though it
seems probable from a letter written
by the Queen to Azzolino from
Hamburg that a great deal more
was set down than now exists, we
cannot know whether it was ever
finished, and can only regret that
so little is left to us of a confession
that was intended as a sincere record
of empirical life. The maxims show
something of the manner of woman
that Christina was, and if only as
the work of a magnanimous soul
they deserve not to be altogether
forgotten.

Una Birch.

18

THE WORK OF THE
LEISURE OF CHRISTINA,
QUEEN OF SWEDEN, 1680

THIS WORK IS BY ONE WHO NEITHER

DESIRES NOR FEARS ANYTHING

AND WHO IN NO WISE WISHES TO

IMPOSE ON ANYONE

THE WORK OF THE
LEISURE OF CHRISTINA,
QUEEN OF SWEDEN, 1680

This work is by one who neither
desires nor fears anything
and who in no wise wishes to
impose on anyone.

E should forget the past,
endure or enjoy the pre-
sent, and resign ourselves
to the future.

To expect the recognition of bene-
fits is almost to merit ingratitude.

Benefits should be scattered at
random like corn in a field.
21

MAXIMS

To be under an obligation to those
one loves is an agreeable servitude.

We should enjoy everything with-
out scruple and surrender everything
without pain.

We do not always love what we
esteem, but we always esteem what
we love.

The merit of the doer gives the
value to the action.

Over sympathies and antipathies
the reason has no power.

We should revenge ourselves in
benefits : all other vengeance, no
matter how just, is unworthy of an
heroic soul.

Fools are more to be feared than
villains.

22

MAXIMS

The secret of making oneself
ridiculous is to plume oneself on the
talents which one does not possess ;
we may deceive everyone but our-
selves.

Conscience is the only mirror
which neither flatters nor deceives.

Just as a pilot marks the rocks on
which he has made shipwreck, so
ought we to mark our faults in order
to avoid them.

Modesty is a kind of sincerity.

We love those to whom we have
done good and hate those to whom
we have done evil.

We should be more miserly with
our time than with our money.
23

MAXIMS

Man is not made for pleasure but
pleasure for man.

Custom makes us insensible to
almost everything.

The body must be subdued and
treated as a slave, but as a slave
deserving of charity.

We should never speak of our-
selves either in praise or blame.

To praise' anyone either more or
less than he deserves is to betray
truth.

It is more difficult to do evil than
to do good.

We must always try to do our
best ; but if we stumble, even if we
fall, we must never think that all is
24

MAXIMS

lost, but with God's help pick our-
selves up again as quickly as possible.

Nature seldom makes a hero and
Fortune does not always proclaim
those that she makes.

It is the star not the merit that
gives the reputation.

To lose occasions of distinguishing
oneself is a great loss.

Men always eye with disapproba-
tion the things they are unable to do.

The passions are the salt of life ;
we are neither happy nor unhappy
except in their exercise.

Counsel is not command.

Extraordinary merit is a crime
which is never pardoned.

25 E

MAXIMS

To suffer for well doing is in itself
a kind of recompense.

We should read for instruction,
correction, consolation.

Reading is part of the duty of an
honest man.

Books flatter neither the passions
nor the faults of those who use
them.

We should make use of men of
letters as if they were living libraries,
and as such we may esteem them
and take counsel of them, never
forgetting, however, that they are but
poor advisers in affairs of the great
world.

Knowledge of the past is of great
help for the future.
26

MAXIMS

Those who do not please seldom
deceive.

We should rather fear those we
love than those we hate.

We are always sufficiently clever
if we are sufficiently strong, for mere
cleverness seldom makes up for
want of strength.

A man of great ability can
neither please a fool nor love him.

We should never believe anything
we have not dared to doubt.

Weakness is the greatest of mis-
fortunes and the greatest of defects.

The familiarity which breeds
contempt in us for some people
breeds in us respect for others.
27

MAXIMS

We must pardon everything to
men of great spirit and great heart,
for to have great spirit and great
heart is to have merit.

To make secrets of trifles is to
make oneself ridiculous.

A prince must think of himself as
a slave crowned by the people.

If princes knew their duties no
one would wish to be one.

No one thinks himself insulted by
the kick of a horse or an ass; we
ought to have a like contempt for
those who despise us, no matter how
they show it.

It is well to remember that vain
people can never be trusted.
28

MAXIMS

We should make no comparisons
for fear of doing an injustice to
others or to ourselves.

Men only shed their ambition
with their skin.

The past should count as nothing,
we should always live at new costs.

The man is worth nothing who
does not prefer duty to pleasure.

To be envious or jealous of a
person is to acknowledge his merit.

Hope is a passion that evokes the
falsest pleasures and the truest
pains.

We should be inconsolable in
dying if we did not age.
29

MAXIMS

We ought to be heroically in-
different to all that happens — but the
indifference must be heroic, not
stupid.

Happiness does not lie in the
opinion of others.

In the world we must get accus-
tomed to seeing the foolish thought
clever, the cowards brave, the wicked
good. We are but novices in living
if we grow angry over this.

The sea is the symbol of great
souls. However agitated may be its
surface its depths are always calm.

Nothing which has a term is in-
supportable.

We are almost always children, but
we change our games and our toys.
3o

MAXIMS

The dead have a sad advantage
over the living, for they are the first
to forget.

One should live with men as with
sick people from whom one endures
everything.

Secrets are rarer than one sup-
poses3 all men have confidants, and
these confidants have others.

The man was truly wise who
wished neither to obey nor to
command.

To obey no one is a greater
happiness than to command the
whole world.

Great friendship is as rare as
great love.

3i

MAXIMS

Life is too short for love.

We must pardon our enemies, our
friends, ourselves; but it is more
difficult to pardon ourselves than
others.

We ought to forget offences, never
benefits.

Health and money exist to be
spent.

We are not made innocent in
order that we may remain ignorant.

To believe everything is weakness,
to believe nothing folly.

Perhaps those are right who call
youth a fever, but I wish the fever
would last all my life, even if it made
me dream.

32

MAXIMS

All the life we live between child-
hood and decrepitude is youth if we
are strong. There is no other youth
than perfect health and vigour of
soul and body. Everyone who has
such health is young, no matter if he
be a hundred years old, and every-
one who has it not is old if his years
number but eighteen.

Pleasures fatigue more than busi-
ness.

Those who do not love reading
deprive themselves of the most
useful of pleasures.

We should cultivate our souls
rather than torment our bodies.

Conscience gives no quarter.

It requires more courage to marry
than to go to war.

33 f

MAXIMS

There is no estate in which good
and evil do not balance each other.

To conquer oneself is to triumph
over one's most powerful enemy.

There are things which we should
neither do nor say ; there are others
we should do and not say; others
again we should say and not do ;
yet others that we should do and
say without hesitation.

We are always apprentices in the
craft of living.

We ought never to be satisfied
with ourselves, however satisfied
others may seem with us.

We should always try to surpass
ourselves. This occupation will last
our lives out.

34

MAXIMS

Enemies are always sincere in
their hate, though friends are not
in their love.

The secret of making the most
annoying things acceptable to one-
self is to see in them God and His
will.

The greatest profit we get from
study is learning not to be insupport-
able to ourselves.

Patience is the virtue of those
who lack either courage or force.

Patience usurps all the merit of
necessity.

There is no condition which may
not be glorified by our actions or
our sufferings.

35

MAXIMS

Men conceal their diseases as if
they were crimes. J)

If we were not ignorant we should
neither grow old nor sick. Both ills
have their remedies of which we are
ignorant.

Despair is pride — a secret and
criminal presumption. We are never
more free than when we depend on
God.

Self-interest is the unknown god
to whom many people sacrifice
everything.

If God exists not, virtue and
honour are but chimeras.

Learning to despise oneself is the
only gain of sinning.

36 .

MAXIMS

By whatever gate we enter Eter-
nity, it is a gate of triumph.

If we took as much trouble to be
good as we do to appear good we
should end by being so.

Some people are foolish enough
to become slaves and martyrs to
their clothes and to fashion, and are
unhappy if they do not spend their
days between the mirror and the
comb.

Hypocrisy is the Proteus that
assumes a thousand forms, the
chameleon which adopts a thousand
hues.

We should be the first to forget
that we have ever done any good.

God orders men to love Him
37

MAXIMS

more than themselves, which proves
that self-love is not criminal as some
have said.

Resignation is the result of love.

Perfect resignation is the result of
perfect love, it is an exquisite and
sublime form of adoration.

There are moments in which God
communicates Himself to the soul
in so ineffable and incomprehensible
a manner as to make one forget the
whole world.

The most beautiful of all orisons
is that of silence and love. God
alone understands such language.
The majority of men have no
experience of such prayer.

True sanctification consists in that

38

MAXIMS

intercourse which passes without
witnesses between God and the soul.
This glorious and secret communion
would amaze even the angels if they
could enter the sanctuary.

One never forgets what one loves.

Death is the consoler of all misery
and all misfortune.

Charity does not constrain us to
praise follies, but it may constrain
us to conceal them.

Those who only wish to be
known of God have no need of
directors. The name of ' director '
must be insupportable to any person
of spirit.

All scruples cease when in good
39

MAXIMS

faith one surrenders oneself to
God.

Old age is more terrible than
death, but it consoles men for
dying.

Happy are those who die without
growing old.

Men talk more than beasts, but
it is questionable whether they are
more wise.

The only duty of a preacher is to
kindle the love of God in man.

True religion consists in loving
God and our neighbour. All the
rest is mummery.

We may easily be heroes or saints
40

MAXIMS

in the opinion of others, but we must
be saints after God's fashion.

The most pardonable of all idola-
tries is that of the sun.

The famous counsel c Know thy-
self,' which men have said is the
source of human wisdom, is but the
source of misery, for this decree
imposes on man the harsh necessity
of tearing down his self-disguises and
of realising his own nothingness.

However agreeable and glorious
life may be, we should be very un-
happy if it did not end.

Life would be little and death
nothing if the soul were not
immortal.

The world should be looked upon
41 G

MAXIMS

as an inn, in which we abide but a
few hours.

Every man who fears death is
incapable of great action.

To survive oneself is a misfortune,
for which we must console ourselves
as we do for other ills.

Philosophy neither changes nor
corrects a man.

If the heart is not royal, there is
no royalty.

There are people to whom every-
thing and for whom everything is
right.

Change is the remedy for many
of the ills of life.

42

MAXIMS

The patience of Epictetus and the
brutality of his master are equally
insupportable.

We ought both to be sensible of
and to despise everything that
happens.

The world is a great and magnifi-
cent temple, of which the earth we
tread is the altar whereon day and
night continually Time and Death
immolate victims to the Author of
Nature.

43

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